Production flat at $1.0 million per doctor, overhead up 4.5%: the 2025 Dental Economics-Levin Group practice survey

What it says#

Dental Economics and Levin Group have surveyed general dentists every year for 20 years. The findings for 2025, written by Roger P. Levin, DDS, and published May 5, 2026, report an average production per doctor, including hygiene, of $1,001,807, against $1,004,178 the year before, which the article calls statistically flat. Applying Levin Group's rule of thumb that 25% of doctor production comes from hygiene, the article puts the average general dentist's direct production at $751,355. 72% of practices reported higher production in 2025, but only 8% reported an increase greater than 15%. Over the survey's 20 years, the article says, production per doctor has grown at a compound annual rate of 2.3%.

Overhead is the other half of the picture. 58% of practices reported higher overhead in 2025 compared with 2024, 15% said it was lower and 27% said it stayed the same. The average increase was 4.5%, down from 5.1% in 2024, but 27% of practices said overhead rose more than 10%. The article notes that ADA Health Policy Institute data showed prices for dental equipment and supplies up 5% between January and September 2025, and 55% of respondents named rising overhead their biggest challenge.

Asked to pick their biggest challenges, with more than one allowed, respondents chose declining dental insurance reimbursements (56%), rising overhead (55%), difficulty hiring clinical team members (53%), patient concerns about finances and the economy (50%), not enough new patients (31%) and difficulty hiring office or administrative staff (22%). 17.5% reported more use of third-party financing in 2025. The article sets this list beside HPI's own survey, in which 55.3% of respondents cited insurance reimbursements, 54.2% staffing and 41.5% rising overhead as major challenges.

On insurance, 50.5% of respondents said one or more of their plans lowered reimbursements in 2025, which the article calls a significant increase over 2024. Only 10% of practices are fully fee-for-service. The average practice had 57% of its patients covered by dental insurance, and Levin's stated experience is that a practice exiting a plan can expect to lose about 50% of that plan's patients, which is why the article advises leaving one or two plans with a replacement strategy rather than all at once.

Staffing: more than 89% of respondents believe there is a shortage of dental staff available for hire, 58% are seeking to hire at least one team member, and 76% have at least one open position right now, which the article calls a huge increase from the prior survey. The responses to the shortage were raising base compensation (49%), more bonuses (32%), better benefits (27%), staffing agencies (25%), technology for productivity (23%) and reducing office hours (8%). And 43% of practices report using AI to support the practice, clinically and administratively. Looking ahead, 92% expected to do the same or better in 2026 than in 2025, most of them expecting revenue growth of 5% or more.

Who it applies to#

The respondents are general dentists. 87% are owners or partners in an independent private practice, 3% are associates and about 10% are employed by DSOs or large group practices; 52.3% are in solo practice; the average respondent is 55 years old, which the article notes is older than the ADA's average dentist age of 49. Respondents were asked to use their 2025 practice statistics for performance questions and their current attitudes for questions about 2026.

That profile makes the numbers a fair benchmark for an established, owner-run general practice and a poor one for a specialty office, a startup or a DSO location. The article does not report how many dentists responded, when the survey ran or how the sample was drawn, and the dollar figures are averages, so a handful of large practices can pull them. Treat the production number as a comparison point, not a norm.

What changed#

Against the prior survey (2024 statistics, published May 9, 2025): production per doctor moved from $1,004,178 to $1,001,807, and the share reporting higher production from 73% to 72%. The share reporting higher overhead fell from 65% to 58% and the average increase from 5.1% to 4.5%, which the article reads as the pace of overhead growth slowing. The challenge ranking changed more: declining reimbursements went from 50% to 56% and took first place, rising overhead slipped from 62% to 55%, patient financial concerns jumped from 36% to 50%, not enough new patients went from 36% to 31%, and difficulty hiring administrative staff dropped from 32% to 22%.

The share reporting that a plan cut reimbursements went from 32% to 50.5%, fully fee-for-service practices from 12% to 10%, and the insured share of patients from 54% to 57%. On staffing, the shortage belief eased from more than 91% to more than 89% and the share seeking to hire barely moved (57% to 58%), but the share with an open position went from 53% to 76%, and the share seeing more third-party financing from 14% to 17.5%. The 43% AI-adoption figure has no counterpart in the prior article.

Where the source is#

The findings are an article on dentaleconomics.com by Roger P. Levin, DDS, published May 5, 2026 and free to read. There is no separate methods report or data file; the article is the survey's public record, and the two prior editions (May 9, 2025, for 2024 statistics; May 8, 2024, for 2023 statistics) are linked above for the year-over-year comparisons. The article cites ADA HPI's State of the U.S. Dental Economy report for the fourth quarter of 2025, linked above as a PDF, for the equipment and supply price figure and for HPI's own list of practice challenges.